Where did the Scottish Homes family come from? When did the Homes family first arrive in the United States? Where did the various branches of the family go? What is the Homes family history?

Homes was first used as a surname by the descendents of the Boernician clans of Scotland. The Homes family lived in Berwickshire. They held the barony of Home from very early times and possibly predate the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Home family is part of a noble lineage descending from the Earls of Dunbar, and the family of the Earl of Northumberland, the great Gospatrick, a descendent of the Kings of Bernicia. They first appear in the records in 1268, when William of Home appeared on a charter. They next appear (as so many of the prominent Scottish families do) in 1296, when Geffrai de Home of Lanarkshire swore an oath of allegiance (in the Ragman Rolls) to King Edward I of England after that king's brief conquest of Scotland.

Scribes in the Middle Ages simply spelled according to sound. The result is an enormous number of spelling variations among names that evolved in that era. Homes has been spelled Humes, Hum, Humme, Humm, Homes and others.

First found in Berwickshire an ancient county of Scotland, presently part of the Scottish Borders Council Area, located in the eastern part of the Borders Region of Scotland. They held the barony of Home from very early times, and possibly predate the Norman Conquest in 1066. There were many branches of the Homes family including the Homes of Cowdenknowes, the Homes of Wedderburn, the Homes of Manderston, the Homes of Renton, the Homes of Kames, and the Homes of Blackadder.

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Homes research. Another 263 words(19 lines of text) covering the years 1468, 1506, 1560, 1609, 1569, 1645, 1604, 1648, 1671, 1698, 1641, 1724, 1696, 1702, 1797 and are included under the topic Early Homes History in all our PDF Extended History products.

Most of the Boernician-Scottish families who came to North America settled on the eastern seaboard of what would become the United States and Canada. Families who wanted a new order stayed south in the War of Independence, while those who were still loyal to the crown went north to Canada as United Empire Loyalists. In the 20th century, the ancestors of these families have gone on to rediscover their heritage through Clan societies and other patriotic Scottish organizations. Research into the origins of individual families in North America has revealed records of the immigration of a number of people bearing the name Homes or a variant listed above:

Shaw, William A. Knights of England A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of all the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, Ireland and Knights Bachelors 2 Volumes. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing. Print. (ISBN 080630443X).